Iain Gillott, President and Founder, iGR Research — One of the main questions we have been asked recently is “what is a small cell?” This is an interesting question since it appears that different operators and vendors have different views on this. As the old adage goes, the answer is, “it depends on what you [...]
View Article Iain Gillott, iGR Research, wireless infrastructureFrank Rayal, Partner, Xona Partners — There is a consensus in the wireless industry that the ultimate success of small cells is affected and sometimes restricted by the need to maintain a low total cost of ownership for the entire small-cell deployment, of which backhaul is a major component. Hence, the small-cell wireless backhaul problem [...]
View ArticleAltobridge, a manufacturer based in Ireland, has launched a self-learning multi-radio small cell, which reduces backhaul costs. A 3G version of the product, known as Data-at-the-Edge (DatE), has been commercially deployed on rural small cells in Malaysia, where through RAN caching reduced backhaul. Up to now, the OEMs avoided content caching at the edge of [...]
View Article wireless infrastructureAmit Jain, Vice President, Product Management, SpiderCloud Wirelesss — Consumer femtocells and their higher power cousins, enterprise and public-access femtocells, provide coverage in hard-to-reach areas. But they do not address the mobile data capacity explosion. Why? Because they cannot be used in places where the demand for mobile data is actually exploding! The demand for [...]
View Article Amit Jain, in-building wireless, SpiderCloud WirelessWill Franks, CTO, Co-founder, Ubiquisys — Intelligent small cells – that was our starting point when we kick-started Ubiquisys in 2004. Miniature cells that dynamically adapt to the changing conditions to provide a valuable low cost complement to the macro network. We called them femtocells, technology we pioneered that has become the foundation for a [...]
View Article Ubuiquisys, Will FrankA five-mile test of rural small-cell wireless system has been completed by CoverageCo, a wholesale service provider. The Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA) has provided funding for CoverageCo to build nearly 90 miles of wholesale cell service in a number of the state-designated target corridors where little or no service currently exists. VTA is purchasing the [...]
View Article CoverageCo, small cells, Vanu, wireless infrastructureCisco’s planned purchase of Ubiquisys, a U.K.-based intelligent small cell software provider, is the latest move in a buying spree that positions the Wi-Fi router maker to be a player in the small cell RAN space. The Ubiquisys acquisition, valued at $300 million, follows the purchases of Intucell and BroadHop in January of this year, [...]
View Article hetnets, wireless infrastructureTowerStream has formed Hetnets Tower Corporation, which will offer wireless carriers and others a range of shared infrastructure services and access for mobile wireless Internet services. “We are excited to launch our new subsidiary, Hetnets Tower Corporation,” said Jeffrey Thompson, Tower Stream president and CEO, during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. “The explosion in [...]
View Article Jeff Thompson, TowerStream, wireless infrastructureCommon wisdom now says that small cells will represent a big opportunity for the wireless infrastructure industry. With AT&T’s announcement that Project Velocity IP (VIP) would bring 40,000 small cells online, the technology was placed front and center stage. But there were other signs of mainstream acceptance of small cells, like NEC’s agreement with SpiderCloud. [...]
View Article ABI Research, AT&T, ClearSky, CoverageCo, NEC, SpiderCloudTraditionally, DAS has come in two flavors: low-power indoor and high-power outdoor. But as the technology matures, manufacturers are introducing different power variants to provide a variety of coverage options for integrators. These additional tools allow the power of a DAS to fit more closely the size of the area, capacity needs and the number [...]
View Article John Spindler, TE Connectivity